Watchers of U.S. Inflation Focus
Their Attention on Consumer Prices

WASHINGTON -- Wall Street is always anxious about the monthly release of the consumer price index, a potentially market-moving indicator that is the nation's most widely watched inflation measure.

But after last week's stronger-than-expected report on wholesale inflation, Tuesday's report on consumer prices is taking on broader significance. Unlike the producer price index, which measures business costs and doesn't always reflect trends in the broader economy, the consumer price index can have a direct effect on everything...